It’s summer here in the desert. The heat has driven out the tourists and part-time residents, leaving just the hardy souls who live here year-round.
We hole up in our air-conditioned homes like hibernating bears, emerging only to check the mail, get something at the store, or maybe head towards the ocean to escape the blistering heat and enjoy a day at the beach.
The cooler winter months are just ahead but for now we wait patiently.
My husband and I are now in our second summer in the small desert town of Borrego Springs, California. It’s a remote community located in eastern San Diego County, completely surrounded by the 600,000-acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
In August, the daily temperatures are well over a hundred degrees. It’s similar to Palm Springs and sometimes we even compete with Death Valley.
When my husband and I decided to make Borrego Springs our home, we naturally worried if we could handle the infamously hot summer months. So far, we feel we are doing well with the heat, even though there are certainly some challenges.
Here are a few observations so far about summertime in Borrego Springs.
Yes, it’s definitely VERY hot.
The temperatures so far this month, for example, have ranged from about 100 degrees to 117 degrees, depending on what weather station you go by. Last month was the same.
But my husband and I are already acclimating to the Borrego heat. Now that we’re two summers in, 100 degrees kind of feels like no big deal. It’s mostly a dry heat here, although we do get some humidity here and there.
We do have to admit, however, that when it gets over 110 degrees, we definitely feel it. The air is noticeably thick, every breath fills our lungs with hot air, and all our energy is instantly zapped. The pool helps, but once we’re out of the water, we tend not to stay outside too much longer.
It’s pretty boring here in the summer.
This is something my husband and I are still trying to get used to.
In the summer, it’s way too hot, even in the early morning hours, to go on bike rides, go for walks or hikes, or do much of anything outside.
We’re also isolated out here. It’s about an hour and a half in any direction to get to a big city. So we can’t just pop out to see a movie, attend an event, or fill a Saturday with a visit to an outdoor market.
Additionally, local businesses shut down or drastically reduce their hours in the summer. So the town goes a bit dead, with the exception of Carlee’s, the local watering hole.
We’re getting used to just being at home, which wasn’t like us prior to living in Borrego Springs. It’s a much slower way of living and this part has definitely been an adjustment.
The mornings are noticeably noisier.
In the summer, it’s not uncommon to hear lawn mowers, weed eaters, and chainsaws starting at around 6 a.m.
It’s the coolest time of day for folks to get yard work done or for the landscapers to get to work. You get used to the noise after a while.
What type of yard work is there in the desert, you ask?
For one, there’s a lot of palm tree trimming going on. Not to mention the palo verde and mesquite trees. There’s also cactus pruning, shrub shaping, and smoothing out gravel and sand areas (we don’t do much grass here in the desert).
My husband and I can’t handle working outside in the heat, so we save the yard work for the cooler winter months. During the summer, we simply let the irrigation keep everything from dying off.
Monsoon season is a mixed blessing
This time of year, large masses of warm and moist air come up from Mexico, creating powerful thunderstorms here in the Southern California desert.
The rain is both welcome and unwelcome.
We get less than seven inches per year here, according to the Anza-Borrego Foundation, and what little we get sets us up for either a good or bad spring wildflower season. We look forward to a good bloom because it not only lifts everyone’s spirits out here, but it also brings tourists that help the local economy.
On the flip side, flash flooding can damage homes and businesses, make some roads impassable, and knock out power. Last year, we had a pretty good storm roll through. Fortunately, it only caused some isolated issues.
Your power bill goes up A LOT
Borrego Springs is brutally hot this time of year and that means you need to run your air conditioning 24/7. It also means learning how to manage the high electricity costs that go with it.
My husband and I constantly keep a close eye on our power bill to ensure we’re doing everything we can to keep it from getting out of control. It’s especially important this year because I lost my job and we’ve had to tighten our purse strings.
Here’s a video where I share how we manage it. These aren’t miracle solutions, but together they’ve made a noticeable difference.
A lot of people think we’re nuts to live here.
“How do you handle the heat?” is something we get asked quite often this time of year. Folks also can’t figure out why we want to live in such a remote place away from a major city.
There’s a lot that drew us here. It’s the combination of small-town living, affordable housing, and being able to own a place with our very own pool, which feels like a luxury.
Sure, there are challenges. Things are a bit different out here in the desert. But we love living in Borrego Springs, heat and all.
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